My friend living in Prospect Garden first introduced me to this playground. It belongs to the Foote School. I fell love with it immediately.
The playground is only open to the public when the school is not in session, like after hours or over the weekends or summer. When you get there, first there is a little wooden shed you can go through, then you are facing a wooden play-set that has slides, climbing rope, climbing rods, a barrel-tunnel like slide, a real tunnel slide, etc. The structure is also connected with a tree log path to test your balance. The whole thing is almost completely made of wood, and uses the natural wood color, so plain and so natural. Our family call it ‘the wooden playground’.
But the most eye-catching thing in the playground is the giant climbing structure. It has mesh wires covering the whole outside. And inside it has big lily-pad shaped platforms that rise up one after another. The kids climb in from the bottom of the structure, then climb upwards inside of it. It is so high up that it looks scary. Although with the mesh wire outside and the supports inside, there is no risk of falling. Such a great design!
If this one is too challenging, (like when my boy was 3), there is another smaller tower thing nearby. It has two ways of getting to the top layer. You could use the staircase in the middle of the tower, or you could climb and squeeze in the secret holes between the levels. I have never seen anything like those two climbing structures anywhere else!
The playground has 4 regular swings and one tire swing, a big spider web thing, a sandbox, and a decent sized green field. It even has a real boat, (got donated to the school at some point). What’s more precious, it has lots of shade! The big trees in the middle and around the playground give everybody a cool place to enjoy the summer. The only issue would be that, since it is not really a public playground, there is no bathrooms or water fountain.
New Haven Kids! 